Gender Division of Labour and Women's Decision-making Power in Rural Households in Cameroon. pp. 58-71

Abstract

In most rural areas of Cameroon, women are incorporating market-oriented dimension to their farming activities. This is an improvement from years before when food crop farming was almost exclusively for household consumption. This additional focus on food crop farming is mainly as a result of the need to supplement household income following the drop in salaries which came as a result of the economic crisis Cameroon and many African countries have been facing since the 1980s. Nominal incomes for salary earners in Cameroon, mostly men, were slashed by over 60 per cent in the early 1990s (Tchnoungui et al.1995). The agricultural sector was not spared either. Most of Cameroon's foreign earnings come from agricultural commodities - cocoa, coffee, cotton, whose production is largely in small-holdings owned mostly by men. In the 1980s, world prices for these commodities collapsed, and of course, the incomes of the small-holders was placed on the backs of women. Considering that decision...